Eugenio Maiale recipes

Author: Lisa Featherby
Photography: Chris Chen

10:28AM, Apr 22, 2009

"It's the bomb, it really is," says Eugenio Maiale. "You just
can't get more Italian than that." He's talking about maccheroni
alla chittara: hand-cut pasta tossed with a slow-cooked lamb ragù.
"Whenever I think of it," he adds, "I think of my relatives sitting
along a long table under the vines, my uncle playing the
squeezebox, and everyone just hoeing into this pasta." [ED'S NOTE:
To get the recipe for maccheroni alla chittara, and watch
Eugenio make it from scratch, click here.]

Maiale knows a thing or two about pasta - he makes 80 kilos of it
a week himself at A Tavola, in Sydney's Darlinghurst, and the
silky, supple qualities of his creations are chief among his
restaurant's charms. (He still thinks mum's is better,
nonetheless.)

Adelaide-born Maiale has strong ties to his family in Italy.
Regular trips to Palmoli, in Abruzzo, provided him with constant
inspiration. "I consider myself to be quite Italian," he says.
"That's where I've picked up most of my techniques and my love and
humility towards Italian food."

After apprenticing with 12 Italian "mamas" at Adelaide's Rigoni's,
Maiale opened Auge and Citrus, respected establishments both. He
then decided to try his hand in Sydney, working with first Robert
Marchetti at Icebergs, then Steve Manfredi at Manta, all the while
keeping an eye out for his own little site.

The recipes you see here aren't a million miles from the A Tavola
menu, but the focus is more squarely on Maiale's Abruzzese heritage
and the ingredients and dishes he grew up with. "Peppers are
abundant in the Abruzzo, and stuffed with tuna they're really
commonplace," he says. "The scamorza [the mozzarella-style cheese],
the Abruzzese have their name on it, and the cicerchiata is pretty
much the big finale. At carnivale, when everyone dresses up, that's
what they'll serve. There's always a competition to see who makes
the best."

For now, the opening of his first wine bar, Omertà, in mid-2009 is
keeping Maiale busy. "I just want to try doing a little bar," he
says. "That, and keep cooking." The opening coincides with another
arrival, that of his first child. "I think it's going to be a
girl," he says. "I can't wait to cook my little one her first
pastina."